


A Christmas Hunt

by stitchcasual



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Vaxleth, Costume Parties & Masquerades, F/M, Mistaken Identity, the hallmark holiday movie that perc'ahlia deserves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27769012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchcasual/pseuds/stitchcasual
Summary: Vex'ahlia travels to Whitestone for the traditional Gray Hunt (and the substantial monetary prize that entails) and discovers the true meaning of the season.aka the Hallmark movie-inspired Vex/Percy fic we deserve
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia
Comments: 8
Kudos: 58





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tiny_owlbear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiny_owlbear/gifts).



> I wrote this like a year ago for a friend and then forgot to post it and by the time I remembered it was summer so HERE IT IS, at a calendar-time that is more appropriate for winter and Christmas holiday-themed fics. I hope you all enjoy this extremely indulgent AU.
> 
> Chapter 2 will be posted in a day or few, once I read through it again for little typos.

Vex runs a thumb along the leather strap holding her quiver to her back. She grips the bow, unstrung, in her other hand, almost like a walking staff though she’d never dare do such a thing. The longbow looks laughably out of place among the others, recurves and compounds all, and she does her best not to fidget, much, under the scrutiny of the curious looks cast her way. If only the Lord of Whitestone would show up to greet them, then she could get out from under their discomfiting gazes.

There are six of them standing and waiting in a drawing room off to the side of the main, cavernous entryway. The ceilings are tall, stretching up perhaps fifteen feet, gilded all the way, and a few portraits of stuffy looking old men hang on the walls. A piano sits in one corner of the room, opposite the door they’d entered from. Several of the others have gotten bored and started wandering the room, poking at things and whispering. Their voices carry, despite how obviously they’re trying to keep everything hushed, and Vex can hear each of their awed remarks over the quality of the furnishings and exclamations about what they’ll do with the prize purse that goes to the winner of the hunt, already talking like they’ve won.

Vex holds her bow tighter. She knows exactly what she’ll do with the money too, but she’s not going to tell any of these people; they wouldn’t understand.

Another door to the room opens, and a young woman strides through, her steps long and confident. Her dark brown hair is braided and pinned to her head, a few streaks of white at the temples giving her the air of someone older than Vex believes her to truly be. She clasps her hands in front of her as she stops ten feet into the room to look at those assembled.

Vex is the only one still standing where the butler had deposited them, and she feels utterly unprepared for this woman’s gaze. Does one bow before a lord? What’s the proper protocol here? No one had seen fit to tell her. Come to that, is this Lord Percival? She supposes that’s possible. In the end, she does bow, stiffly from the waist, but she hopes she’ll be forgiven for any potential offense.

“Greetings, hunters. Welcome to Whitestone. I am Lady Cassandra de Rolo. Lord Percival regrets that he is unable to greet you all in person, as is customary, and humbly begs your pardon. He would like to formally invite you to the grand masquerade two evenings hence on the eve of the Hunt, and hopes this will make up somewhat for his absence. In the meantime, please follow me to the armory where we will be storing your bows until the morning of the Gray Hunt.”

Lady Cassandra gestures out the door she’d entered through and leads the way down winding corridors until Vex is thoroughly lost and convinced that she needs one these castles for her very own. But even the winnings from this hunt wouldn’t buy her anything near this nice, and she files it away for daydream material instead.

She stops dead in her tracks when Lady Cassandra opens the doors to the armory. Each wall is lined high with weapons, bows of all kinds, hunting rifles, and even what look like javelins and other rudimentary things in the far corner. There are benches for working on adjustments, machines to help string bows, chests with what Vex assumes are tools for modification and care of the weapons. She’s in heaven.

Until the person following her runs smack into her, tipping her off balance. She keeps her feet, tripping a few yards into the room, and lifts her chin against the soft laughter from the others. Let them laugh now. She’ll show them all. She can see how they dismiss her as a real competitor due to her “outdated” bow, but she’s got the strength and stamina to draw it repeatedly, something those with the modern bows tend to lack. She finds they generally rely on the technology within their bow rather than their own person, and that’s where they end up failing. A bow is only as good as the person wielding it, and Vex has made sure that she’s the best. 

* * *

The lights in the village are on as Vex enters through the main square, wiggling her fingers into her gloves and shoving her hat on her head. Thousands of tiny lights twinkle on strands threaded on trees and hooked on buildings, turning the cozy little town into a winter paradise. Greenery wraps around lamp posts, and Vex is delighted as she presses her face closer to discover that it's all living holly and wintergreen, lovingly curated to grow in the best locations. She can see a small ice skating rink at the other end of town, children and their parents circling round and round, their laughter reaching her from here. She turns away with a sigh and digs her phone out of her pocket, unlocking it to send a quick text to her twin. Vax had wanted to come with her, they never went anywhere without each other really, but there wouldn't be anything for him to do while she was on the hunt, so they’d decided it was for the best if he stayed home. Doesn't mean she doesn't miss him fiercely and wish he were here anyway. 

His reply to her is near instantaneous, an indication both of how he’s missing her too and of how late he’s staying up because of it. She chides him on his sleeping habits and gets a cryptic string of emojis in return. Vax’s lack of sleep aside, she’s going to explore this village as much as she can tonight and tomorrow before the hunt begins and she won’t get another chance. Her flight out of here is bright and early the morning after everything ends, just like her flight here required a yawning Vax to drive her to the airport at 3 am. Cheap flights are worth it, she tells herself, rubbing at a knot in her neck. She almost believes it. 

She settles on a plan of attack, heading down one side of the main street tonight as far as she can, then picking up the rest of this side and the other tomorrow. There won’t be a lot of time for her to explore each shop, but Vex doesn’t have the pocket change to buy much in the way of souvenirs anyway, so that won’t be an issue. 

She skips the barber shop at the beginning of the street, not in need of a haircut, and slips into the florist’s next door. It’s filled to the absolute brim with plants identical to the ones outside plus poinsettias and mistletoe and all manner of other winter plants, plus a few all-season blooms. The redheaded woman behind the counter is more than happy to tell Vex all about how she grew the plants outside over the preceding months, coaxing them up the posts and along the fences, and Vex happily listens, glad to have a friendly person around for the first time that day. She leaves with a promise of returning, though she’s not sure when that will end up being.

The next store is full of kitschy Whitestone-branded souvenirs, mugs and magnets and the like, plus a good-sized section of Christmas decorations that looks almost picked clean at this point in the season. The hunt takes place a couple days before Christmas Day, and everyone seems to have been stocking up in preparation. Vex nearly buys a little raven ornament with a Santa hat on it but holds back; she’ll save all her gift purchases for before she leaves, that way she has all the money in case she runs out of necessities in the meantime. She’s planned carefully so that won’t happen, but sometimes she can’t control everything.

She skips a few more shops here and there in favor of just walking the village and admiring the sights. It really is beautiful. Where she and Vax live now doesn’t get as into the season as this, and while that suits them just fine usually, as they have no real family to spend the holidays with besides each other, Vex does appreciate that other places go this hard in their festivities. It’s nice to visit but feels like it might get exhausting year after year. 

The last place she pokes her head into is the local bookshop. Or, she would have poked her head in had she not been run over by a fellow exiting the shop in quite a rush. Her butt finds a dry patch of hard sidewalk to land on as her hands splay out to the sides into snowbanks. She’s suddenly and intensely grateful she put her gloves on earlier. The man who ran into her stands, unsure of himself, over her and to the side, tilting his head down at her.

He’s not overly tall but a little gangly and thin anyway, as though he hasn’t quite grown into himself yet. His clothes are dark but fine, well tailored and obviously meant for him even if they’re running a bit threadbare in places. The stack of books in his arms is so tall he has to balance it with both hands, and he looks conflicted about his inability to offer Vex a hand to her feet. She stands of her own accord, brushing snow off her gloved hands as she stares into the man’s very odd face.

He’s wearing a mask, a dark porcelain piece that covers the upper half his face and the entirety of his head and comes to a pointed bird-like beak over his nose and lips. Peering out from the eye holes are two brilliant blue eyes, framed by lashes so light Vex doesn’t see them until the eyes blink. The lips under the mask press together, and the man bows just slightly at the waist, careful to keep the stack of books from falling.

“I apologize for running into you,” he says, voice soft and formal. Though it’s the same accent most of Whitestone has, Vex likes the way his words form better, quite taken with their light sandpaper quality. She has to shake her head and remind herself that she’s supposed to be upset at him for bowling her over. 

“Perhaps if you bought a few less books, you’d be able to see where you were going, darling.” She pulls the glove off one hand to examine it, flexing and curling the fingers, before doing the same with the other. “You’re lucky you didn’t hurt the goods.”

The blue eyes blink a few more times before widening in comprehension. “Ah. You’re one of the hunters, then? My apologies once more; I am glad I seem to have left you all in one piece.”

“My competition won’t be.” Vex laughs and winks at the masked man, whose mouth opens and closes a few times at that before finally settling on a small smile of his own.

“I’m Vex, by the way. Vex’ahlia Vessar.” Her mouth twists around the last name, but it’s her own fault she hasn’t gotten around to picking a new one and changing it. “And you are?”

“Uh...Percy. I’m just Percy.”

Vex arches an eyebrow. “Well, Uh-Just-Percy, I think I’d better escort you home so you don’t run into any other hapless souls who may take it poorly.”

“That’s really not—” Percy begins, stepping forward and promptly tripping on an uneven paving stone.

“Necessary?” Vex finishes for him, her hands propping up half the stack of books in his arms as he regains his feet. “Oh, but I think it is. In fact…” She grabs the top half of the stack of books and smiles at him. “Now you can’t get rid of me and must also watch where you’re walking. How terrible. Please lead the way.”

The look Percy gives her from under the mask is indecipherable, but he does eventually sigh and turn up the street Vex came down initially. Vex follows, easily falling in step with him. They walk in silence for a few minutes, and Vex sneaks a few more glances toward her enigmatic new companion. The mask, now that she sees it from the side, really does wrap around his entire head, nearly like a hat with a face protuberance. She can see a few strands of white or platinum blond hair peeking out and wonders just how old he is. He doesn’t seem very old, somewhere around her age, perhaps a little older? But not old enough to have gone white unless she misses her guess.

“So Uh-Just-Percy, do you wear that mask for form or function? Is it just for the aesthetic or does it have a purpose?” Vex snickers to herself at the idea of an Instagram account solely for selfies of Percy with this mask on. Actually, he’d probably get a fair few followers, now that she thinks about it.

Percy doesn’t answer for a little while, clearing his throat and looking down to the side. Vex has given up the question as lost by the time he finally answers.

“It’s a bit of both, I suppose. The function informs the aesthetic.”

“Oh? And what’s the function?”

“To keep people at a distance.”

Vex pulls up short, startled, but hurries to catch up to Percy again as he keeps walking. “Well, it’s not working very well for you today.” She could swear she hears a chuckle from him, but it’s so short and soft that she starts to doubt.

They continue on, turning off the main street and onto the road that Vex took to get down to the village from the castle, and Vex goggles at Percy, shifting the books in her arms slightly.

“Do you live in the castle??”

“Many people do,” he responds, giving her another of those looks she can’t read. 

“Oh sure,” Vex mutters to herself, “many people plus _the Lord and Lady of Whitestone_ , but no big deal, right? I’m sure that’s comp _l_ _etely_ normal.”

There’s another of those chuckles, and they make the rest of the walk in silence. Percy leads her over to a small door set in the side of the castle, away from the main entrance she’d used earlier that day. With another small bow, Percy liberates the books she’d taken from him and whisks through the door, shutting it before she can say anything. Vex rolls her eyes and heads back to the village and her little rented room in the attic of someone else’s house.

* * *

Pike has breakfast made by the time Vex gets up in the morning. Vex wonders, when she walks in yawning, just why there’s so much of it, but by the time Pike has showed her where the coffee and creamer are and she’s made herself a cup, she has her answer on that front. An absolute giant of a man ducks into the kitchen, literally ducks since he’s taller than the door frame, and beams when he sees the stacks of pancakes and bowls of eggs and plates of bacon. Vex watches, fascinated, as massive amounts of food disappear into his mouth, and she rushes to fill her own plate before it all ends up in his stomach.

After breakfast, Pike introduces Vex to Grog, her very best friend and the town’s general manual labor man. Vex hadn’t been aware that there were more people than Pike living in the house when she’d rented the attic, but it’s Pike’s house after all; she can let whoever she wants to stay under her roof. Grog will apparently be involved in toting things within the castle today to prepare for the Grand Masquerade that next evening.

Vex excuses herself after Grog leaves, hoping to get some time in with her bow. She hikes up to the castle separately, keeping her eyes peeled for that Percy fellow. To make sure he doesn’t run into her again, she tells herself, that’s the only reason. There’s no sign of him at the front entrance to the castle, nor anywhere inside as she follows the valet to the armory.

Attached to the armory is a shooting range with no one else in sight. Do the rest of them not care about the Hunt? Or do they assume not practicing for a few days will be fine right before the biggest event of their lives?

Vex steps over her bow, bracing it with a foot as she bends the wood back and strings it in one fluid motion. Or perhaps she’s the only one who takes the Hunt this seriously, the only one who needs to. She stretches her arms out a little before pulling an arrow from her quiver and firing at the closest target. It hits in the red, and she scowls. Her next arrow hits in the center, not dead center but close enough to accept, and she switches her attention to the next target.

Over the next hour or two, she plays a few games with herself: walking up and down the rows of targets while firing at ones that aren’t in front of her, shooting an arrow into each ring of a target, and rapid-fire clustering. By the end of it, her muscles are sore, but not so bad they’ll prevent her from being at her best for the Hunt, and her face is covered in a sheen of sweat. She unstrings the bow, cleans and oils it, and gives it back to the care of the armory. As she heads for the door, something catches her eye and she turns, looking around but finding nothing. A trick of the light, most likely, nothing more, and she leaves the castle to head back to Pike’s for a shower.

* * *

Vex spends the rest of the day visiting more shops and absolutely not looking around for Percy so she’s definitely not disappointed when she leaves the last store without seeing him once. She’s considered going back to the bookshop but dismissed that idea since he’d been there yesterday and was unlikely to visit again in so short a time. But she hadn’t been there yet, having been distracted by Percy and escorting him home last night, so she decides to head over anyway and see what she’d missed out on. The place is stuffed with bookcases, which are in turn stuffed with books in no apparent order. She could spend days in here and still not see everything, so she doesn’t try, just skims over the titles as she slowly walks through the stacks. The fringe benefit to not having any money to buy things, she supposes.

As she rounds the end of a bookshelf farther into the shop, she can hear two voices, deep in conversation. Out of habit more than any real need to eavesdrop, Vex slows her pace, placing her feet deliberately, toes first as Vax had taught her so long ago. One voice is unfamiliar but the second she knows, and she peers around the bookshelf just to confirm.

Percy stands at the counter, two books open in his hands, and it looks like he’s comparing the two. “Are you sure this one’s legitimate?” he asks, hefting the book in his right hand. “It feels completely wrong for the time period.”

Vex isn’t sure how he can see the books properly with that mask on his face, but she’s not about to say so and give away her presence.

“Of course!” the shopkeeper says, spreading his arms wide and smiling. Vex narrows her eyes. “I wouldn’t swindle my best patron!”

Vex can see Percy frown beneath the mask. “Are you sure?” he asks again. “I’ve never come across a pre-Divergence book made of these kinds of materials. The paper is all wrong; pre-Divergence booksmiths didn’t use this kind of technique to make their pages. You can barely see the fibers.” He holds the book up to the light, carefully stretching out one of the pages.

From behind her bookcase, Vex formulates a plan. She backtracks, coming at the shopkeep’s counter from a different angle, one where he won’t see her approach but Percy will. She winks at him as she walks forward, still mostly silent, to lean against the counter next to the shopkeeper.

“Why don’t you tell us where you really got it, darling? These blatant lies are getting us nowhere.” She smiles brightly at the shopkeeper when he spins to face her with a startled cry, and wiggles her fingers in greeting. At her gesture, Percy offers the book to her, and she purses her lips as she flips through it.

“I’m shocked you’re trying to pass this off as pre-Divergence when it can’t be older than 500 years. Honestly, it’s a terrible fake. I hope whoever you bought it from didn’t pull the wool over your eyes like you were trying to do to poor Percy here.” Vex softens her face and looks genuinely sympathetic as the shopkeep sputters a bit before subsiding. “There, there, I’m sure Percy will still buy it, though I imagine the price will be adjusted accordingly.”

Percy doesn’t say anything as Vex offers his money for the book, just stands there and lets it happen, accepting the book as she passes it back to him. The price is indeed adjusted accordingly, and then adjusted further as Vex pouts and wheedles a little more, and Percy then finds himself escorted out of the shop by Vex with both books in hand and less money spent than he’d been initially calculating. They’re a few steps down the street before he wakes from his shock.

“Is it really less than 500 years old?” he asks, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

“What’s that, darling?” Vex turns around, and Percy repeats the question. “Oh, that. Actually it’s more like 350 years old, you can tell by the stitching in the binding, but 500 is just such a nice, round number.”

Percy’s head tilts slightly, evaluating her, and Vex sweeps her braid over her shoulder and winks at him. They stand there on the sidewalk, gazes locked, or as locked as they can be when one party’s eyes are partially obscured by a functionally aesthetic mask. 

“People get suspicious if you’re too specific, even if you’re right,” she continues, toying with the end of her hair. “So it’s better to confidently state something that’s close enough rather than try and insist on details.”

“How did you know?” 

Vex grins. “I was homeschooled,” she says.

* * *

Percy wanders the town with her after that, giving her the kind of tour that only someone who’s spent his life here could. There are more shops off the main drag that she would have missed, and everyone seems to recognize Percy, though it’d be hard to not recognize a man wearing a beaked mask. He seems to thaw a bit as they walk, relaxing into the conversation. He’s smart, almost intimidatingly so, with a dry sense of humor Vex appreciates. She enjoys his company. She’d never admit it out loud to anyone but Vax, but she’s glad to have found a friend in this town for the time being. She feels out of place here, but Percy’s companionship helps.

As it nears evening, Percy excuses himself to get back to the castle and Vex wanders back down the main road toward Pike’s. On a whim, she decides to visit the garden store again and get the smallest, stupidest looking plant in there to bring home to Vax, though she swiftly changes her mind once she’s entered the establishment, her ears picking up a distinctly familiar voice.

She rounds one of the large potted ferns and plants her hands on her hips, her glare venomous. The redheaded shopkeeper turns to look at her, her smile freezing at the look on Vex’s face, but the person talking takes longer to turn, his voice finally trailing off.

“Hey stubby,” Vax says, like he’s not exactly where he is not supposed to be. “Surprise.”

Vex stalks forward and grabs Vax’s ear before turning to smile sweetly at the redhead. “Excuse us, dear,” she says, and then she drags her loving brother out of the store and onto the street where she can berate him properly.

“Ow ow ow,” from Vax, and Vex lets go. Vax rubs his ear and grins at her, and though she’s still absolutely furious at him, Vex hugs him tightly. 

“Missed you,” Vax says into her shoulder.

“How much did you pay for a flight out here?” Vex asks, in lieu of responding in kind, even though she had missed him terribly as well. Perhaps there was something to be said about codependency and perhaps they’d have to do something about that in the future, but she can’t deny she’s happy to see him, however worried she is about how much money he may have spent out of their meager funds to get here.

“I didn’t.” He beams as he pulls away and gestures down the street. Vex’s eyebrows climb up her forehead as she sees their old, beaten-down station wagon parked at the end of the row. Vax must have driven straight through after dropping her off at the airport to get here. Vex slaps at his shoulder, and Vax dodges.

“Were you texting and driving yesterday?”

“Absolutely not, I know better. Even if I am incredibly good at it.”

Vex narrows her eyes at him, but he’s here and safe and maybe she can get a refund for her flight home if Vax is here. They haven’t taken a road trip together in a while; it might be nice. As twins, they’ve spent a lot of time together just as a matter of course over their lives, but they really like spending time with each other, so it works out. Even if Vax drives her absolutely batty on occasion, with his flagrant disregard for his own life and the rules of polite society. Not that she’s that much better, but at least she tries. Vax just gets by on charm and his uncanny ability to seemingly disappear from sight after he’s stirred up a spot of trouble.

Vax drives her back to Pike’s, which really isn’t that far away and she could have walked except that the time limit was nearly expired on the parking spot so it just made sense, and only then does he finally admit that he’d been planning to sleep in the car to avoid paying for a hotel room. Vex marches him into the house, introduces him to Pike, and very politely inquires if it would be all right if her stupid brother stays here as well. Pike generously agrees, pleased to have another person in the house it seems, and she and Vex head to the office to talk specifics on rental agreements, leaving Vax and Grog to their own devices.

Potentially a bad plan, as they’re interrupted nearly at the end of their discussion by a loud crash from the kitchen. They rush back to find Vax perched atop one of the kitchen cabinets and grinning like a cat while Grog flails wildly from underneath a large pot that’s been upended over his head. Pike, sweet, short Pike, darts into the kitchen and taps Grog’s knee, and he settles, kneeling down to come to her level. She removes the pot from his head and he pouts at her, so she replaces it on his head and steps back as Grog stands back up and resumes his previous performance.

“I think they’re having fun,” Pike says as she rejoins Vex. “And the furniture is mostly Grog-proof.”

And so it’s settled that Vax will stay at Pike’s as well, and Vex pays her for the additional person and increase to the security deposit. “Just in case,” Pike says, as another crash sounds. More than fair, Vex agrees, and secretly hopes nothing breaks so she can get that money back at the end of their stay here.

* * *

The next morning, Vex repeats her trek to the castle and spends a few hours in practice with her bow. She leaves Vax with Grog and Pike, crossing her fingers that they’ll be able to handle him for the time she’s away. Her aim feels off today, not by a lot, but enough that it’s noticeable in the shots she makes, where she intends them to go and where they end up. An observer would be hard-pressed to see anything amiss, she knows, but she can _feel_ it and she doesn’t like it. The Hunt is tomorrow, after tonight’s grand masquerade whatnot, and maybe it’s her nerves finally catching up to her. She’ll thank them to kindly fuck off.

As she exits the armory, looking around for the valet who led her here, she catches a glimpse of white hair and turns to stare. But the person attached to the hair is walking away from her, clad in clothes so fine and neat that she’s immediately certain it isn’t Percy. His clothes hadn’t been drab or pedestrian when she’d seen him, true, but they were definitely not on the scale of these. And besides, whoever it is isn’t wearing that odd mask.

The valet, approaching from the corridor the white-haired person is heading down, bows deeply to the figure, pausing his movement until the white hair has moved past with a regal nod to the valet.

“Who was that?” Vex asks, pointing after the mystery figure in exactly the manner her mother tried to teach her not to.

The valet favors her with a look that says he considers her to be particularly dense even as he extends his arm, bows slightly, and leads the way out of the castle.

“That was Lord Percival.”

Oh. She supposes Lord Percival must have been too busy to greet someone like her. He probably has so much to do that he can’t spare a moment. Vex tries not to feel slighted and mostly succeeds, and if she mimics the mannerisms of a poncy lord on her way back to the village, well, that’s between her and the squirrel that chitters at her from the branch above her head.

* * *

Pike offers to help with Vex’s dress, hair, and makeup for the masquerade, but Vax shoos her away and shuts the attic door behind the two of them, leaning against it as he watches his sister move from closet to suitcase to dresser and back to suitcase, grabbing and then forgetting half of what she needs before trying again. On her next circuit around the room, he bumps off the door and grabs her shoulders, gently steering her to the stool in front of the little vanity in the corner.

“Sit down, let me.” He forages in her suitcase for her makeup bag, remembers that Vex doesn’t have a makeup bag, and nearly upends the suitcase trying to find each little piece. But he manages it, he’s very good at hide and seek, and rejoins Vex at the vanity, setting the makeup down in front of her.

He brushes her hair and deftly weaves it back into a beautiful French braid that hangs over her shoulder. It’s familiar work, and grounding in its own way. Vex sits quietly, twisting her hands in her lap, eyes closed. Vax tugs gently on Vex’s hair, shifting her to face him as he kneels in front of her, hands on her shoulders.

“What’s wrong, stubby?”

Vex sniffs but refuses to cry, reaching up to grasp one of Vax’s hands with both of hers. “How about I stay here instead? Pike could make popcorn, we could watch a movie in our pajamas.”

“What? And miss your chance to show all those fancy gits how much better than them you are? No, look at me,” Vax says as Vex tries to hide her face. “You look amazing in that dress, and you’re going to outshine all of them tonight and then outshoot them all tomorrow at the hunt, yeah? You are so much cooler than any of them, and I watched you eat paste until the fourth grade.”

Vex laughs then, swatting Vax lightly on the shoulder and uncurling from the ball she was working herself into. “Some brother you are, letting me do that.”

“Hey, I can’t make you do anything, much less stop you when you’ve decided on doing something. So if you really don’t want to go, we can skip all this and go back downstairs.” Vax squeezes her shoulders and smiles at her, and Vex is so glad he showed up. It all seems so much more manageable with him by her side than it had alone. She squeezes Vax’s hand in return and shifts back to the mirror.

“If they’re boring, I’m out of there,” she says, mostly to herself as Vax sorts through the odds and ends of makeup that she’d packed. He eventually finds something serviceable and directs her in the appropriate weird facial motions he needs from her to get the stuff on properly. Vax hums a little to himself while he works, but otherwise it’s quiet in the room for a while.

“D’you want company? I mean, if they let you have a plus one I could go with you if you want. No, don’t move your face yet, just think about it.” 

It takes a few more minutes until Vax pronounces her face finished and steps away so she can see. Vex hardly recognizes herself. She barely wears makeup most days, not bothering with the hassle of it all, so it’s a stark contrast even though Vax limited himself to just the basics. She doesn’t have winged eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man, which is almost too bad, but she does have killer contoured cheekbones and that’s a suitable compromise. Vax has used makeup just shades off her regular skin tone so she looks almost normal, except that she looks way more put together than normal. He softly outlined her eyes and put mascara on her eyelashes and there’s something on her lips that’s giving them a little extra color and sparkle.

“Wow.”

“I know, right? YouTube.”

Vax grabs her dress from the closet and helps her step into it with his eyes closed, zipping up the back and squeezing her shoulders through the sheer fabric. He holds her back from looking in the mirror, darting to his own bag to pull out something. He keeps it hidden as he comes back and makes her close her eyes. Vex feels a few gentle tugs on her hair and furrows her eyebrows, but she keeps her eyes shut until Vax tells her it’s okay to look.

In the mirror, she can see what he’s done: several curved blue feathers are now woven into her braid, the lengths of them swooping with the lines of her hair. They match precisely with the dark blue of her dress, and Vex’s hand flutters up to nearly touch one before falling away. It almost looks like a continuation of the dress itself, so naturally do they fit with the scheme.

Vex twirls, and the heavy skirt of the dress follows her movement, not billowing out, it’s not the right fabric for that, but it rustles pleasingly. The leaf and flower motif embroidered on the bodice is done in the same color as the dress, creating a subtle texture pattern, and it extends up to the sheer fabric that covers her shoulders and arms, leaving quite a bit of skin exposed but not in such a way that Vex feels uncomfortable about it. She bought the dress because it was the nicest thing on the rack that she didn’t feel unnecessarily on display in…also it was on an incredible clearance sale. 

“You look amazing.”

“Thank you.” Vex turns to embrace her brother. She couldn’t imagine doing this without him now, but… “I can do this.” She nods decisively and repeats herself. 

“Besides, I know someone who works up at the castle. I’ll find him and we’ll have a grand time.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Yes. Have a nice, quiet night in with Pike. It’ll probably be super boring and you’ll just be whining at me to come back anyway. I won’t be out too late.”

Vax puts up a token resistance, but Vex slips her ID, phone, a small knife, and the key to Pike’s into her thigh holster, kisses him on the cheek, and sweeps out the door before he can say much else and change her mind. She’s already teetering on the edge of not going, but she won’t give any of the other hunters the satisfaction of not showing up (at least for a little while). It’s maybe not the most glamorous thing to walk up to the castle, but if Vax had driven her, she’d have stayed in the car rather than go in. At least the coolness of the evening air keeps her from overheating, and she takes a minute to the side of the gates to catch her breath and set her mask to her face before striding through as though she'd just stepped out of a limo.

She can see Grog’s handiwork as she follows the strings of lights winding around nearly every available vertical surface; she doesn’t remember this many decorative trees from the last time she was in the castle, and there’s a definite uptick in the number of statuary pieces as well. A string quartet plays from around a corner, and as Vex rounds it, she finds herself in a grand ballroom. The ceilings are at least two stories tall, and strands of crystals run glittering in the light from the several chandeliers in the middle of the room to the four corners where large pillars stand. Along the wall on one side are long tables festooned with crisp, white tablecloths and vases of winter flowers Vex is sure must have come from the flower shop in town. Finger foods of all varieties line the tables on silver trays, and farther into the room looks to be the liquor table. Vex heads that direction.

Once she’s fortified with one drink down and another in her hand, she takes a closer look at her surroundings. She peers with suspicion at everyone from behind her mask, suddenly grateful to have something to hide behind, and she feels she understands Percy perhaps a little better. She doesn’t see him in this crowd, his mask is hard to miss, and tries not to feel disappointed. It will make the evening shorter to not find him, and she’ll head back to Pike’s as soon as it feels polite to do so.

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches sight of, no, it can’t be. She turns and narrows her eyes at her brother, who gives her a giant grin and a double thumbs up before his arms are occupied with the large poinsettias that his redheaded friend hands him. They tote the plants to another area of the room and Vex loses sight of them, though she continues looking, intending on giving her brother an absolute earful.

At the far end of the ballroom are Lord Percival and Lady Cassandra, or so Vex assumes. They’re not mingling but are rather receiving people from a long line of guests, shaking hands and kissing cheeks and exchanging pleasantries. Is she expected to join the line and say hello? Nothing was said earlier about masquerade etiquette and though she has her phone on her, it would be a little awkward to hike up her dress in the middle of the room to get it out of the pouch around her leg so she can google whether or not she’s supposed to join the line.

In the end she does because she’s pretty sure that under that suit in line that looks the same as all the other suits is one of the hunters. She listens in on the conversations happening ahead of her in line and tries to piece together what it is she’s supposed to do here before it’s her turn. Some of the people stay speaking with the Lord and Lady for a minute, some simply greet them and leave. Vex is beginning to suspect that there really isn’t a convention to this.

Neither Lord Percival nor Lady Cassandra have a mask on, though Lady Cassandra’s hangs around her neck and Lord Percival seems to have shoved his up onto his head. Vex has seen Lady Cassandra before but only the retreating form of Lord Percival, and she takes a moment as the line shuffles forward to study him. His features match his sister’s to an extent, sharp and angular, but his face is narrower, his nose somewhat too large to be considered strictly handsome. It is, overall though, a face that Vex enjoys and doesn’t mind watching as the person three in front of her takes nearly five minutes to talk to the Lord and Lady about who only knows what.

“The ballroom looks exquisite,” Vex enthuses, finally in front of Lady Cassandra. She grabs one side of her skirts and bows.

“Thank you. It’s a joy to bring together every year.” Lady Cassandra sounds tired, as though she’s been saying variations on the same thing to the entire line for over an hour, but she smiles and it looks genuine. “I am glad you could join us tonight.”

Vex performs her bow to Lord Percival as well. “It is good to meet you, Lord Percival.” She hopes that’s sufficient and polite enough as a greeting for a lord and smiles at him. The look that comes over his face is one she can’t decipher, but it’s cold and quite unlike his sister’s.

“Hunter.” He inclines his head a fraction and that’s it. Vex blinks at him then bows again, first to him then Lady Cassandra, and walks away as fast as she can without being rude. She’s quite glad now that Lady Cassandra had been the one to greet them the first day; obviously she came out with all the social skills he lacks.

“He may be pretty, but he’s an ass,” she mutters to herself, piling a little plate with all manner of hors d'oeuvres. She’d decided, on her way from the receiving line to the tables of food, that she’s going to eat as many of these little things as she can fit in her stomach and then walk out of here with her head high. She knows who she is, even if all these rich, fancy people don’t. 

Unfortunately, it appears she won’t be able to call Vax for a ride home, as he’s currently in another corner of the room, his head bent close to the redhead’s, his smile bright. He laughs often and she’s happy for him, she really is, but a part of her also wishes this were the senior prom instead of a grand masquerade so she could grab his hand and drag him out of here without real repercussions. But she can’t do that to him now. He looks so happy and it’s been so long since either of them were truly happy with anyone other than each other.

So she shifts her attention to watch the main floor of the ballroom, covered in dancers twirling and stepping in time to the music. It reminds her of a fairytale movie, the princess dancing with her prince though neither of them know who’s under the mask, and she shakes her head. That sort of thing doesn’t happen in real life, as nice as it would be to have events unfold according to a predetermined arc. If this were a story, she’d be due for something nice happening for a change.

“Any minute now,” she says, staring at a pretend watch on her wrist.

“Waiting for something?”

She whirls to find a familiar beaked mask beside her and relaxes for the first time since that morning. “Obviously for you. Where have you been all night?” She adds a miniature swoon for effect.

Percy shrugs and shuffles his feet a little. “My duties tend to keep me fairly occupied.”

Vex arches an eyebrow. “Except when you’re running around the village.”

“Except when I’m running around the village, knocking over lovely huntresses,” he agrees.

Vex grins and offers him her plate, and he selects a small sandwich from it, angling his face so he can ferry the thing to his mouth under the mask. It looks ridiculous and she absolutely does not laugh at him even a little bit. Between the two of them, the rest of the food on the plate disappears quickly. They spend a while just talking, Vex gesturing with the plate occasionally, and she finally learns the name of the redhead Vax has been hanging around. Her name is Keyleth, and apart from running the flower shop, she’s also on tenure at the nearby university in their horticulture program. Vex tries not to feel inadequate, though she’s also simultaneously proud of her never-touched-college brother for aiming his sights so high.

It’s comfortable, leaning against the wall at the side of the room with Percy, and she knows without a doubt that if he hadn’t found her when he did, she’d have been long gone by now and missed her chance at this. Whatever this is. Her eyes catch Percy’s through the mask, and she feels uncomfortably like he knows what she’s thinking so she changes the subject.

“You know, it’s really not fair that men can all wear the same suit while women have to dress up like this.” Vex gestures brusquely to her dress and out to the crowded dance floor where the other brightly patterned dresses twirl in time with the music and their partners.

Percy coughs and looks aside, and Vex humphs, falling into the subject change with gusto. Yes, let him feel bad about it, meanwhile she’s still stuck in this dress; although, while it doesn’t leave her as free as the leggings she normally prefers, she does have to admit the rustle of the fabric as it moves around her legs is amusing. She’d never want to wear this all the time but supposes every once in a while there could be an exception made. Not that she’s likely to ever get a chance to wear something like this again. Being invited to the Gray Hunt is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and no one at home throws parties like this. There are a few other hunting tournaments, to be sure, but none of those have a grand masquerade the night before. Just a lot of drinking, probably.

Vex sighs as she watches the floor. A lot of things will change after tonight, she knows, especially if she pulls out the win, but she’s not ready for that to happen yet. She wants to enjoy what she has here for a bit longer. So she pushes off the wall she’d been leaning on and extends her hand to Percy, bowing slightly.

“Dance with me, darling.”

She can see his hairline move under his mask and knows his eyebrows have raised; she winks at him and wiggles her fingers. Percy places his hand in hers, moving with great care and deliberation, and Vex finds, to her great surprise, that when his fingers meet hers, they’re calloused and rough like hers are rather than smooth and soft as she’d assumed they’d be. She smiles at him and wraps her hand fully around his before he can rethink, pulling him to the dance floor.

She knows a few dances: her mother had taught her and Vax one from her childhood, their father had ensured they knew at least two stiff and formal dances, and there was one class in high school that Vex took because her friend was that she remembers next to nothing of. Mostly she’s hoping that Percy knows something because he lives in the castle that she can follow along with, but also she finds she’s alright with the idea of just swaying in place if it comes to that. She’ll miss Percy when she leaves in a couple days, and she’s trying hard to not think about that right now.

They don’t have to wait long for the music to change, Vex had timed it rather well, and Percy bows to her this time as they move onto the floor with the rest of the dancers. He raises their joined hands and sets his other against the small of her back. Vex shivers, though the room isn’t cold at all, and rests her arm on his and her hand on his shoulder as she was taught. 

“Shall we?” she murmurs.

“I should think so,” he whispers back.

It takes Vex a few measures to settle into the dance as Percy leads. It’s one of the ones she was taught in school that she didn’t think she remembered because her friend Zahra had always worn sinfully tight clothing and held her perhaps tighter than strictly necessary as she led Vex through the steps, but the muscle memory flows back into her as they go. She relaxes into it, trusting Percy to lead and her body to follow as the music washes over her. Percy does smack her once in the face with that ridiculous mask of his, but it doesn’t hurt and they have a laugh about it. But Vex finds she’d like him to try that again; she knows he was trying to lay his head against hers and forgot about his extended nose for a moment, so she tries it herself after one song ends and the next begins and Percy hasn’t made another move other than flexing his fingers at her back. 

This next song is a slower one, the pace more sedate and conducive to this kind of thing, and Vex plans her move as carefully as she would any of her hunts. She angles her head slightly away from his, to get past the beak, and inches her body closer to his over the course of the first minute of the song. When she judges them close enough, she again twists her head, this time toward him. Her ear rests on his shoulder, just in front of her hand, her nose nearly pressed to his neck. She can see him swallow. His hands grip her just the barest fraction tighter, and she smiles. Good to know she hadn’t misjudged him.

“Vex,” he says quietly, but it’s not the prelude to more words, just a statement in its own right.

“Percy,” she responds in kind and closes her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gray Hunt commences, a face is revealed, and a decision is made

The morning of the Gray Hunt lives up to its name, and dawn breaks behind a wall of clouds. Vex can see it out the window of the armory as she finishes seeing to her bow. It’ll be cold outside when they get to the forest, and though that means it will be harder for Vex to draw and hold an arrow, it also means her quarry will be more sluggish as well. She’ll take the tradeoff. She can hear the others complaining to each other about the cold and the light, or lack thereof, but she doesn’t mind that either; less direct sunshine means she’ll cast less of a shadow as she moves. For the first time, she wonders if the other hunters are the kind who set up blinds and wait for their prey to come to them rather than actually hunting it down. It would make an awful lot of sense. Gets real cold, lying like a log.

The valets lead them through the castle and out to the back grounds, which stretch for a hundred feet or more before ending in the thick trees of the Parchwood Forest. Lord Percival is on hand this time to greet the hunters and wish them luck, but Lady Cassandra is the one who reminds them of the rules governing the contest. She stands tall next to her brother on the raised platform, gazing out at the assembled hunters. Lord Percival’s eyes are fixed above their heads at the stone of the castle behind them, and Vex rolls her eyes. Arrogant twit.

“There is a creature in this forest. Those who have come across it and been able to speak of the encounter have described it as monstrous. It destroys our land, uproots our trees, and terrifies our citizens. It must be stopped. One of you must do this. Return with proof that our troubles have ended, and not only will you win the prize purse, but the glory and prestige of Whitestone will follow you in all else you do.

“However, whether or not you complete this task, each of you must return to the castle by dusk. Should no one return with proof, the Hunt will continue at the next dawn.” Lady Cassandra clasps her hands in front of her and studies each of the hunters in turn. “There will be no foul play upon de Rolo lands. This is a contest of skill, not treachery, and any misconduct will be dealt with accordingly.

“Now, take your marks. You may enter the forest as the bell strikes.”

Vex steps forward to the line painted on the grass with the other hunters, stealing a sidelong look at them. They look confident, assured of themselves, and Vex blows out a breath, focusing instead on the ground in front of her. No one else is important right now, she reminds herself. Nothing and no one else exists but her and the creature in the forest. Her vision tunnels as she raises her eyes to stare at the forest.

Behind her, she can barely hear the bell as it tolls the early hour. She takes slow, measured steps toward the forest. To her right, she feels the rush of wind as people pass her, running headlong at the trees, but she refocuses, ignoring them. Let them scare up all the game and send it fleeing and see how well they find anything after that. Despite Lady Cassandra’s words, Vex knows this isn’t a “first to the quarry wins” scenario. No one else does, apparently. 

She slips into the trees, minutes behind anyone else, and stops when she’s maybe twenty feet beyond the treeline. She listens to the sounds of the forest, just beginning to return after their startle, and takes in the look and feel of the trees around her. They’re gathered close together, though she can see a few spots farther in that may widen out into clearings of various sizes. The proximity of the trees means it should be a reasonably simple matter to find evidence of this creature and track it to its lair; it is unlikely to be able to move within the forest without brushing against something. She herself has already felt a stray hair from her braid pulled from her head to be held captive against some branches.

Vex pulses her hand around the grip of her bow, keeping the fingers in motion and the blood flowing so they don’t seize up, as she stealthily makes her way farther into the Parchwood.

By mid-morning, she hasn’t seen anything that might indicate a monstrous creature, and she’s wondering just how far into the forest the creature might actually make its home. Did the people who stumbled upon it do so intentionally, considering how far she is from the village already? It’s unlikely they would admit such a thing to the Lord and Lady if so, which makes it unlikely that Lord Percival and Lady Cassandra knew the whole story before calling the Hunt. However, Vex concedes, it is also possible that things are as they were laid out, but she’s keeping a more open mind about it now. She worries at a few pieces of jerky as she considers these options, keeping her stomach satisfied, if not filled, so that it doesn’t make grumbling gurgles at inopportune times.

She does find a few patches of fur clinging to trees as she continues farther, and some paw prints that do look truly massive. Vex carefully draws an arrow and lays it to the string, not that she thinks she’ll need it yet, but just in case. She waits without moving for a full minute after setting the arrow, breathing steadily and listening. Getting this far into the forest, she’s passed at least three of the other hunters in their blinds and hasn’t heard anything from any of the others. She wonders idly where they are but doesn’t dwell on it; if they aren’t near her, they aren’t her concern.

A twig snapping draws her attention, and she moves her eyes toward the sound first, only slowly following with the rest of her head. She can’t see anything specific through the trees, but the sound came from the direction the fur seems to be moving. She crouches and creeps forward, setting her feet with deliberation. Her ears are alert for any further noises from ahead and her eyes scan all around, sweeping the forest floor for places to avoid stepping and peering through the trees for any hint of the beast she follows.

Vex stalks it for close to another hour, by her estimate, the sun now nearing its zenith. The clouds haven’t parted, and the dim light coming through the canopy is further darkened by the sprawling branches and leaves. She hopes all the idiots with their sunglasses on at the starting line are now unable to see as they take them off and try to adjust.

Through the trees ahead, she can see what looks like a clearing and movement at the far side of it. A last few strands of fur caught on a bush confirm her suspicion that she followed the right trail, and she creeps as close to the edge of the clearing as is wise so she can get a look at what she’s up against.

Directly in her line of sight are three hunters, all dressed in various pieces of camouflage, standing around and talking. One of them gestures behind himself at the forest, seeming agitated about something, but the other two brush him off. She doesn’t recognize any of the three as someone from the Hunt, and Vex narrows her eyes at that. Who else would be out hunting in the Parchwood? It’s protected land under some Whitestone charter or another, or that’s what she’d read while researching the place before she flew out. And if the Lord and Lady had granted a day pass to one group or another, Vex is certain they would have mentioned that to reduce the possibility of anyone getting accidentally shot.

She reaches for her phone stashed in a pouch at her waist. It doesn’t matter if this isn’t the target Lady Cassandra told them about: something needs to be done about it, and nothing can be done if no one knows. She takes a picture as best she can without zooming, the bow in her other hand making it difficult to do anything else. And then she waits. 

As she crouches there, she takes a better look around the clearing. It’s bordered on one side by a rough wall of rock just past where the trees start again, and Vex can just make out what’s likely the mouth of a cave. The poachers, because that’s what they are, she’s certain now, are watching it from far enough away to not be immediately visible, which means the animal they’ve got their sights on has cornered itself there. Depending on how long they’ve been here, the creature might be getting hungry enough to leave the safety of the cave to attempt to forage, and that’s when they’ll strike.

Vex’s options are limited, and she can feel her chances at winning the competition slip away as the sun crawls across the sky behind its blanket of clouds. She never could abide poachers though, and maybe the Lord and Lady will see fit to reward her in some way for this service rendered anyway. So she stays, standing and backing up a little ways to stretch her muscles out as the hours pass before returning to her watch. It’s approaching the time when she’ll need to head back to the castle, and Vex has just made up her mind to take them out without provocation when it happens.

A large brown snout snuffles its way out of the cave entrance, followed by the biggest bear Vex has ever seen. It’s nearly taller than she is at the shoulder, and even from this distance she can see some scarring on its muzzle that speaks to a long and rough life. The bear snarls when it sees the poachers again and begins backing up into its cave; the poachers scramble for their weapons; and Vex draws and fires the arrow she’s been holding for hours.

Her shot takes one of the poachers in the shin, and he topples over, screaming and clutching at his injured limb. His comrades turn their attention from the bear to their wounded friend and then to the forest around them, searching for her. She stands and pulls another arrow from her quiver, drawing it back and releasing in one smooth motion toward another of the poachers. He drops to a knee with an arrow in his thigh, but she’s made her position known now and the newly downed man points with a shaking arm at her as she steps from the cover of the trees, a third arrow already on the string.

“Afternoon,” she calls cheerfully as she lets it loose. The extra warning of her presence allows the last poacher to dodge out of the way of her arrow, and it embeds itself in a tree behind him. She snarls and reaches for another as she runs parallel to him across the clearing. It’s a dangerous game she’s playing, now that they know she’s here and can see her, but she’d rather this than leave the animal to fend for itself, however capable it might be. The poacher tracks her with his bow then leads, intending on catching her as she goes. Vex can see the moment before the poacher decides to release the string and stops cold, pivoting to send her arrow flying as well.

It’s not a very well aimed shot. It catches the poacher low in his abdomen, and Vex winces. That’s going to hurt like a motherfucker, and if she doesn’t get him medical attention, he has a good chance of dying here in the middle of the forest. But his shot missed her like she’d hoped and goes winging off into the trees, and that’s what matters for the next minute. She charges the poachers, ignoring the one she just gut shot and aiming for the others, hauling up between them to smash her fist into one face while lashing out with her booted foot at the other. The last one stares up at her, his eyes wide, his hands fluttering around the wound in his side, his lips pleading silently with her. She shrugs at him and grabs his head to smash it into the forest floor.

In short order, all three lie motionless on the ground. Vex shoulders her bow and pulls her phone back out, snapping close up photos of each of the poachers’ faces. She fusses with the men’s compound bows but can’t take out the string without tools, and she grumbles. She’s not about to unstring her own bow just so she can tie them up; it would have been much easier to use theirs against them, but alas. If they get away, at least she has their faces so the authorities can track them down.

With slow, cautious steps, Vex slinks closer to the mouth of the cave, just close enough to get a decent look inside. She can see the bear, the massive, hulking form of the bear, and then behind it, a smaller silhouette moving around at the back of the cave. Her breath comes out in one short _hah_ and she backs up. Idiots.

She drags the poachers out of the clearing and into the trees on the side perpendicular to the one she’d entered on. She’s not entirely sure where the bear’s territory is, but there was fur on her path so she’s not taking them that way and she can’t drag them all the way back to the castle. She’s got some muscle, has to with a bow like this, but not enough to carry even one grown man that far. Hiding them is going to have to be good enough, and if the bear does end up getting them, well, she finds she doesn’t have much sympathy for that possibility. 

Then she executes a bow at the cave entrance and says, “I am very sorry for the disturbance. I will do what I can to make sure you are not bothered again.” She turns on her heel, shrugging her bow off her shoulder again, and jogs back to the castle, hoping she’ll still make it back before dusk.

* * *

It’s a near thing. The sun is half below the horizon, and everyone else has already assembled on the lawn. She narrows her eyes as she slows her pace, walking the last fifty feet. Some of the hunters have returned with bucks and are proudly comparing the racks, still others have nothing and are glaring with jealousy at the ones who do, as though if they also brought in a stag, that would be completing the Hunt. Vex rolls her eyes and steps directly over to where Lord and Lady de Rolo stand on their platform, digging her phone out.

“You’ve got poachers,” she announces, not bothering to lower her voice. “And the monstrous creature you’re so worried about is probably a mama bear protecting her cub, so if you want to keep your people safe, keep them out of the bear’s damn territory.”

She hands over the phone with the screen on and open to the gallery of pictures she’d taken. Lady Cassandra takes the device with wide eyes, flipping through before handing it over to Lord Percival. Lord Percival, who’d been watching Vex with slow-blinking eyes since she approached, doesn’t even bother to look down at the phone now in his hand. He smiles at Vex instead and steps off the platform to stand in front of her. He hands her phone back.

“Congratulations.”

Vex squints at him. “Did you not hear me?”

“Oh yes, I did. Quite clearly. Which is why I am pleased to announce,” he raises his voice and looks from her to the rest of the people arrayed across the grounds, “that Vex'ahlia Vessar is the winner of the Gray Hunt. She will be bestowed with the prize purse and all the rights and privileges that follow.”

Stunned silence comes after this declaration, and Lord Percival’s lips twist in a very self-satisfied smirk.

“Congratulations,” he says again, in a voice meant just for her. He sounds proud of her, and Vex tries to reconcile this Lord Percival to the one she’d met yesterday who wouldn’t give her the time of day.

“Percival, are you sure?” Lady Cassandra asks softly from the platform, bending over to speak to her brother.

“Quite. I’d had my suspicions already; the Hunt was a convenient solution.”

Lady Cassandra looks at Lord Percival without blinking, and he blanches and looks almost contrite and shamed under her gaze. He shrugs helplessly, and she raises her eyes heavenward for patience before straightening back up and turning to further address the rest of the crowd.

Vex loses the train of the words quickly, her mind whirling. She won. She and Vax can move out of their shitty apartment, pay off their debts. All they’d dared to imagine in hushed whispers when she’d received the invitation months ago could now come true. 

Valets from the castle cart the deer away to the grumbles of the other hunters, and Vex feels a thrill of satisfaction at the hunters’ faces, annoyed and offended. Serves them right. She watches as they are led off, presumably back to the castle to store their weapons before the winner’s banquet later that evening. Vex starts to follow them but stops as Lord Percival clears his throat.

“Ah, if you would join me in my study, first? There are a few things I wish to speak with you about.”

Vex stares at him.

“Regarding the rights and privileges that follow winning the Hunt,” he hastens to clarify.

“And the money?”

“Will be dispensed by the treasury tomorrow morning. Please,” and he gestures up toward the castle with a little bow, “come with me.”

Vex sketches her own bow and motions for Lord Percival to go first. It’s not like she’s ever been on her own in this castle; she has no idea where she’s going. He doesn’t try to talk to her as they walk, and she’s grateful for that. Small talk has never been her forte unless it involves bartering or flirting, and neither of those are things she’s interested in doing with the Lord of Whitestone. 

The office he leads her to is tucked away into a corner of the castle, and she recognizes the main hallway they turn off from as the one that would lead her to the armory if she went a little farther. Odd, she thinks, that his study would be this far away from the main area of the castle, but he’s the lord and can do whatever he wants, she supposes. Maybe he has two. She squints at his back. He would. He seems like the type.

She closes the door behind them at his request and stands silent for a moment before figuring why the fuck not and straddles her bow to unstring it. Lord Percival looks up from where he’d been rummaging around in a desk drawer, and his eyes widen. Vex stares at him as she bends the bow and pulls the string from its notches, not looking away as she slowly winds the string around the bow. She shrugs at him when she’s done.

“Everyone else went to the armory,” she says. 

Lord Percival’s mouth opens in a little ‘ah,’ and he clears his throat. “Yes, I promise to let you do the same soon. The rights and privileges that follow the winning of the Gray Hunt are…”

Vex doesn’t mean to, but she spaces out a little. The “rights and privileges” aren’t very important to her; the money is. And she wasn’t aware of any duty that bound her to Whitestone were she to win the hunt; she would have paid attention to that in the fine print. So whatever it is that Lord Percival is telling her has next to no bearing on her and the rest of her life, but she smiles flatly at him through the whole thing, taking in bits and pieces. It doesn’t sound like too much to handle and it mostly boils down to don’t smear Whitestone in the press since this will be announced publicly, but Lord Percival takes forever to say that, his language and words flowery and ostentatious. 

At the end of his speech, Vex nods and flashes him a thumbs up. “Sounds good, darling. Anything else?”

Lord Percival gives her an inscrutable look before dropping his eyes down to one of his desk’s drawers and back up to her. “How have you been finding Whitestone?”

Vex cocks her head. “Fine? It’s a lovely village.” Why is he attempting to make conversation now? Their business should be concluded after this, but she can’t leave without being rude.

“Thank you.”

She’s not sure what possesses her to say it, but she blurts out, “You know you have another Percy on staff, right?” before her brain can catch up with her mouth. “Wears a funny mask?”

Silence stretches between them for a long moment, and Lord Percival looks somewhat…chagrined? Embarrassed? Vex hopes she hasn’t accidentally said something to get Percy in trouble. For how often he seems to kip off to the village, he does give the impression that he’d be quite competent at whatever it is he’s employed around here for. She flexes the fingers of one hand around her bow.

Lord Percival bends to his desk again. “There is,” he says, straightening and setting something on the desk’s surface, “only one Percy here.”

Vex’s eyes bug out of her head once her brain finally catches up with what she’s seeing. Sitting on Lord Percival’s desk is Percy’s mask, weirdass beak and all. _Percy’s_ mask. “Why do you—” she cuts herself off, knowing the answer to the question before she finishes. She flashes a smile, tight-lipped and hard.

“Better question, darling: why didn’t you tell me?”

She lets him have a minute to answer, and when he doesn’t, she turns on her heel and marches out of his office. She doesn’t feel sad, this isn’t what sadness feels like. She’s had enough sadness in her life to know what it’s supposed to feel like. She just feels a cold weight in her chest, buried right up against her heart. 

A valet spots her just as she’s found the armory and waits politely outside for her to take her sweet time putting her bow away. They then lead her to what must be a guest room in the castle where her change of clothes has been laid on the bed. Dinner will be in an hour, they say, and show her the ensuite washroom in case she wants to shower before then. Vex thanks them as graciously as she can; it is, after all, not their fault that Lord Percy is an entirely frustrating man.

Dinner is long, quiet, and awkward, the other hunters shooting her venomous looks throughout and Lord Percy at her elbow staring without speaking at anything but her. She’d tried to sit elsewhere but had been informed by an insistent Lady Cassandra that tradition dictated the winner of the Hunt sit at the Lord’s right. Tradition probably also dictates that the winner of the Hunt stay for the entire time, but Vex excuses herself partway through, claiming illness, and calls Vax from the hall to come pick her up. 

He’s idling in front of the castle in a suspiciously short amount of time, but Vex doesn’t care enough to grill him about it right now. She’ll ask later, after she’s slept, maybe after they’ve left Whitestone and are on their way home. Tomorrow. They can leave tomorrow and she can throw herself into doing anything to take her mind off that “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde jackass!”

Vex throws a pillow into the air and catches it. “I mean, honestly, there were so many opportunities for him to say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m actually the Lord of Whitestone but I like to rub elbows with the little people.’ Would that have been so goddamn hard?” Vax sits next to her on the bed and snags the pillow out of the air when she tosses it next. He whacks her lightly in the face with it.

“You still like him, though.”

“Do I? And if I do, which I’m not saying I do, which one? The one who talked to me and lied to me, or the one who avoided me but told me the truth?” Vex grabs the pillow and presses it against her face, screaming. Vax pokes her in the side, and she laughs as she swats his hand away. He takes the pillow with him when he moves away and hugs it as he looks down at her. 

“Ugh, don’t look at me like that.” Vex closes her eyes. “Why can’t it be tomorrow yet? I just want to go home and pile all our new money on the floor and roll around in it like a dragon.”

“You really want to leave?”

Vex cracks one eye open and stares suspiciously at him. “Don’t you?”

Vax shrugs and Vex opens her other eye so she can squint both of them at him. “It’s Poison Ivy, isn’t it? You want to stay and woo the flower lady!”

“Can you blame me?”

“No… She is quite lovely.”

“She really is.”

Vax wiggles down to lay next to Vex on the bed, handing over the pillow so she can hug it. She does. 

“But if you really want to le—”

Vex whacks him in the stomach with the pillow. “One more day. And then we can leave.”

“Thanks, Stubby.” Vax hugs her around the pillow, and they end up falling asleep there, on top of the covers, in an impromptu sleepover.

* * *

Vex waves Vax out of the house the next morning, ignoring his sad face at her pajamas and second cup of coffee that’s more hot chocolate than coffee, really. He has every right to go out and be happy, just like she has every right to stay inside this house and ignore everything outside of it. She will, at some point, put proper pants on and hike up to the castle in order to collect her payment, but that’s something for Afternoon Vex to handle. Morning Vex is not about that. 

Pike lets Vex pity herself for a while, bringing her another hot chocolate and coffee after she’s moved to the couch under a blanket, but once she’s determined it’s been long enough, she pulls Vex to her feet and they run errands. Pike keeps up enough of a chatter that it forms a pleasant background buzz in Vex’s head and she can focus on that rather than Lord Bloody Percy, which, she suspects, is rather the point. They return from errands and putter around the house, Pike pointing out what needs to be moved or placed where, and it’s nice. Vex is definitely leaving a five star review of Pike’s rental when she gets back home.

But she has to go get her money eventually. Pike offers to drive her, and Vex takes her up on it, grateful that she won’t have as much time to think this way.

The valet at the door recognizes her when she walks up, and Vex both enjoys the sensation and finds herself discomfited at the idea that she’s known here now. She and Pike are led through the hallways of the castle to a small room with one desk and no windows. There’s a door behind the desk that Vex assumes leads to the treasury room where, she can only assume, great piles of gold coins and jewels lay strewn about. She could live in a room like that.

A harried looking clerk comes through the door behind the desk at the valet’s knock, and though Vex cranes her neck, she can’t see the piles of gold and jewels. Drat. Maybe they’re farther in. The clerk is short with a truly impressive beard, and he seats himself at the desk, flipping through a few pages on the ledger there.

“Ah, yes, Gray Hunt winnings, to be disbursed to one Vex’ahlia Vessar.” The clerk peers over his half moon glasses at her. “You are Vex’ahlia?”

Vex flashes finger guns at him, instantly regrets it, and shoves her hands in her pockets. “Yes. I am. That’s me.”

“Right.” The clerk flips another page back and forth, consults a sticky note perched on a stack of other sticky notes resting in a precarious stack of papers, and taps his fingers. “I’m afraid Lord Percival or Lady Cassandra need to approve a transaction of this nature.” He shoos the valet out the door, presumably to collect one or the other of Whitestone’s rulers, and Vex crosses her fingers that it’ll be Lady Cassandra.

Her luck is shit, though. Vax is the lucky one.

Ten minutes of waiting and the valet bows Lord Percy into the small room. Vex hates the stupid blank look on his face and avoids meeting his eyes. He crosses to the ledger, takes the pen the clerk hands him, and flourishes a signature. The clerk stamps a few things, signs a few things himself, then pulls out the largest checkbook Vex has seen in her life to write a check for the largest amount of money Vex has seen in her life. Lord Percy co-signs the check and hands it out to Vex. She takes it, gripping the edge so as not to brush his fingers with hers, and holds it in front of her, not quite believing.

This amount of money can change her and Vax’s lives forever. They can do so much with this, move to a nicer apartment; hell, they could put a down payment on a house if they wanted to. Vax could go to college if he felt like it, Vex could open her own bakery…after some baking lessons. They’ll be set for life no matter what they choose.

“My lady…” Lord Percy’s voice breaks her out of her thoughts, and she pulls the check close to her body to protect this precious slip of paper.

“We were just going to collect Vex’s winnings,” Pike says from Vex’s side, “unless you needed something else, my lord?”

Gods bless Pike Trickfoot, Vex thinks, as Lord Percy withdraws, smiles just barely without it reaching his eyes, and shakes his head. Pike and Lord Percy exchange some other pleasantries, and then Pike has ahold of Vex’s elbow and leads her out of the castle and back to the visitors’ lot where they parked the car.

Vex’s luck is still shitty though, and she’s about to climb into the car when she hears her name called in a voice that’s completely Percy with nothing of the Lord. She turns, hoping she’ll see him in his less-fine clothes, ridiculous mask perched on his head, but alas. He looks the same as he had when she left his presence not five minutes ago. Though… It could be her imagination playing tricks on her, making her see what she wants to believe, but she could swear his hair looks disheveled, like he’d been running his hands through it and then furiously tried to comb it back into order before rushing out of the castle.

It’s flattering to think she might have that effect on him. And of course utterly ridiculous.

He slows his steps as he approaches, and bows politely when he stops. “Captain Pike. Lady Vex’ahlia. Your bow.”

Vex stares at him, blinking a few times and nearly raising a hand to her hair. She’d not put anything in her braid this morning, had she?

“That is to say, if you are departing, your bow is…still within the armory, my lady.”

“Oh. Shit.”

Vex and Pike follow Lord Percy back into the castle and through the halls to the armory, and it’s definitely in the top three most awkward moments in Vex’s entire life. Walking in on Vax and his ex-boyfriend is still probably number one on the list. She and her brother are very close and tell each other nearly everything, so it wasn’t like she hadn’t heard about Gilmore in the bedroom before, but it was the fact that both of them just paused and winked at her from atop the coffee table when she opened the door that made the whole situation weird.

She retrieves her bow as quickly as possible, none of them speaking, and then Lord Percy leads her and Pike back through the castle and to the main door. He looks conflicted as he jerks to a halt just on the threshold, nearly raising a hand before simply tucking it across his body and bowing at the waist to her.

“Farewell, my lady. Captain Pike.”

All in all, Vex thinks she holds it together rather admirably until they’re in the car and finally driving away from the castle. 

“ _Captain_ Pike??” 

“Oh, yeah,” Pike laughs awkwardly, scratching at her neck. “I’m the captain of the Whitestone militia, but we’re on holiday recess so there hasn’t been anything for me to do lately.”

“Ah. Right.” It would make a certain amount of sense: Pike has a strength to her you wouldn’t expect on first glance. Must make her a formidable commanding officer… And explains how she was able to handle Vax and Grog’s shenanigans with a minimum of concern.

“Wait, why was he calling me ‘lady’?”

Pike parks the car in the driveway of her house but makes no move to get out. “Didn’t he tell you?”

Vex waves a hand through the air. “I may have not paid much attention while he was spouting on about responsibilities. I was distracted!”

“Apparently. Okay, so, it’s like this.” Pike unbuckles her seatbelt and turns sideways on her seat to look at Vex. “The winner of the Gray Hunt…inherits a barony.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re a baroness, Vex. That’s why Lord Percival called you ‘my lady’: it’s the proper form of address for someone who’s his social peer.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Vex grips the end of her braid, twisting it around her fingers. All this lord and lady shit is above her head, and it makes a very small part of her wish she hadn’t accepted the invitation for the Hunt in the first place. She’d had no idea things could get this complicated.

Pike sighs. “You and Lord Percival are on an even social playing field now. It’s not something that means a lot these days, since most of the surrounding areas have moved away from this method of governing, but there are still enough people around who hold to tradition. Lord Percival’s family has ruled Whitestone for ages now, and it’s expected that he and Lady Cassandra would hold with certain…formalities.”

“Pike, I appreciate you explaining this to me, but you’re going to need to break it down further.”

Pike reaches across the center console and grabs Vex’s face in both her hands. “He can date you now.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

* * *

Pike and Vex work together in the kitchen that afternoon, creating a feast fit for kings to commemorate Vex and Vax’s last evening with the rest of them in Whitestone. Vex may not know a lot about her barony, but she is at least sure that it doesn’t require her to live here full-time. She just has to come back occasionally and preside over a few things in a generally ceremonial manner, which she figures she can do with as little interaction with Lord Percy as possible. She hopes.

Vax teases her mercilessly about her new title once he hears, like the brat of a brother he is, but he stops immediately when he sees Lord Percy approach their car the next morning in front of Pike’s house.

There hasn’t been a lot to pack back into it, they were only here for a handful of days, but the departure time has been delayed a few times by Pike saying, “Oh! Wait a minute!” and rushing back into the house to bring out a Tupperware of food or a box of something she insists with a wink needs to be opened at home for Christmas. Which, since today is Christmas, they’ll probably open in the car on their long drive.

Keyleth comes by too, and honestly that’s the biggest distraction because Vax drops everything in favor of standing near her and Vex has to carry on stuffing the car herself. Vex tries not to be bitter as she catches a glimpse of Vax and Keyleth canoodling on the hood of the car; he has to leave her in less than an hour, and that can’t be easy after how quickly they’d taken to each other. Keyleth exhorts him into moving and helping again, and Vex smiles at her. She’ll miss Keyleth too.

Vex has her head and upper body tucked inside the passenger side of the car, getting her things stowed away for the first leg of their journey and play fighting with Vax over the console as he pretends to bow and call her “my lady” and ask if she wouldn’t be more comfortable reclining on the chaise (as he gestures to the back seat piled with their bags), when Vax stops abruptly, stares over her shoulder, and disappears from his side of the car, reappearing beside her and glaring out at the street, his arms crossed.

“My lord,” Pike says neutrally, and Keyleth echoes her.

“M’ord,” says Grog.

Vax says nothing.

Slowly, Vex pulls her head out of the car and turns around, not quite sure what she’ll find and certainly not prepared for what she sees. Percy stands there, wearing his well-worn clothing rather than his lord’s finery, the beaked mask pushed up into the white hair on the top of his head. He must have worn it to walk through the village incognito. He shifts his weight on his feet when she looks at him and clasps his hands behind his back.

“My lady,” he says, bowing. Vax scowls at him. “If you would permit me, I would offer an explanation for my behavior these past days.”

Vax steps sideways into Vex’s space, pressing the length of his arm into hers. “Just say the word and we’re out of here.”

Vex leans back into him, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow. “You have two minutes,” she tells Percy.

“I was wrong to behave as I did,” he says. “I must first ask your forgiveness.”

Silence descends on Pike’s driveway. Out of the corner of her eye, Vex can see Pike, Grog, and Keyleth scooting closer. She folds her other arm across her chest.

“Keep going.”

Vax snorts and squeezes his elbow around her hand.

“I was overwhelmed by you, if I am honest. You are so lovely and warm, full of fire and life, and I thought that perhaps I could interact with you as simply myself, that perhaps if I set a bit of space between you and me and the expectations on my position as Lord of Whitestone, that maybe I could regain control over myself. As you are all too aware, that did not work the way I’d hoped, and for that I apologize.”

Percy bows again. “It was unfair of me to do that to you, and I heartily wish that I could take back my abhorrent behavior and do it over again. As I cannot, I can simply wish that you will allow me to start again and show you the care and devotion that you so deserve.”

“And…how would you do that?” Vex asks. She’s pretty sure she’s not imagining the relief in Percy’s eyes.

“I’d start with Christmas dinner, tonight. Just the two of us.”

Vex can hear a small, aborted squeal from either Pike or Keyleth, she’s not sure, before the sound of hands clapping over a mouth. She wants to believe Percy, wants to take this chance at happiness, at something she didn’t think she’d find with anyone who doesn’t drive her nearly mad with worry for love of him and isn’t named Vax. The time she’d spent with Percy, just the two of them, wandering around the little village of Whitestone, had been some of the best hours of her life so far. She breathes in deep, considering her options. She needs to trust him fully, to believe that when he wants to start over properly he means it.

“Take the mask off, darling.”

Percy freezes. He looks uncertain and lost, but after a moment he lifts a hand and tugs the beaked mask from his head. He takes a step forward, his eyes darting to Vax as though to ask permission to approach, and extends the mask to Vex. She accepts it with gentle, reverent fingers, running her fingertips along the curves of it. 

Vax looks over at her, and she smiles back at him. “I think we could stay for one more night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please consider leaving kudos or comments: a bitch lives for feedback <3

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [twitter](http://twitter.com/stitchcasual)


End file.
